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Girl Scout Ranger Weekend

In order to earn the Girl Scout Ranger patch, girl scouts must spend 10 hours in a park completing interpretive activities or doing service projects. The National Park Service at New River Gorge holds a Girl Scout Ranger Weekend in September where local girl scouts are invited to spend the night at Camp Brookside Environmental Education Center. Girls participate in a variety of fun and educational activities, play camp games, sing songs and roast marshmallows over a campfire, sleep overnight in a cabin, and take part in a service project.

2018:

Check back for information for future Girl Scout Ranger Weekends.

2017

On Saturday and Sunday September 16-17 ,2017, New River Gorge National River held our second Girl Scout Ranger weekend at Camp Brookside Environmental Education Center. Seventeen girls and 12 parents participated in the event. The girls all earned the Girl Scout Ranger patch and seven girls received leadership awards for helping lead the program. The girls all participated in a watershed curriculum program that incorporated learning about watersheds and water conservation while developing leadership and teamwork skills. They also did a service project at Sandstone Visitor Center where they planted coneflower and milkweed seeds in the native plant garden. After planting seeds the girls created posters about the importance of native plants and how they felt about helping care for the garden. These posters were used for a new audience-centered exhibit displayed at Sandstone Visitor Center.

2016

In September 2016, 18 girl scouts spent the weekend at Camp Brookside Environmental Education Center to earn their Girl Scout Ranger patch. Over the course of the weekend the girls learned about New River Gorge National River and the National Park Service through a series of interactive activities including fishing, a stream stomp macroinvertebrate activity, owl pellet dissection, a leave-no-trace hike, and several art activities. The girls also completed a service project planting trees in an area that had lost trees due to a wind storm. The girls all had the unique opportunity to stay overnight in cabins at the recently opened Camp Brookside Environmental Education Center. The NPS was able to help fund this program through a National Park Foundation grant.